Aircraft carrier strategy could make America swallow bitter fruit on future battlefields
The US risks failure by focusing on expensive old weapons, while China is determined to pursue future technology.
Under the current 30-year shipbuilding plan, the US will continue to build and launch aircraft carriers until 2048. Experts say the strategy of pursuing this expensive weapon could put the US at a disadvantage in the era of high-tech warfare, especially in the face of the rise of China, according toWashington Post.
The Aspen Strategy Group, which includes many top US officials and former national security advisers, believes that future combat systems will revolve around artificial intelligence (AI), cyber weapons and robots, which can operate on land, sea and sky. Meanwhile, the US military may still have to rely on aircraft carriers, bombers, fighters and submarines that have been around for decades.
"The US has a small number of expensive, human-operated, hard-to-replace, and outdated weapons that are being gradually surpassed by modern technology," Christian Brose, a member of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, worried. He said the Pentagon needs to add more automated, unmanned, cheap, and easily replaceable systems that can survive in the new electronic battlefield and overcome all potential opponents.
"We are not short of money, but we will lose the war if we maintain this situation. Our opponents are using modern technology to neutralize America's military superiority. The situation is increasingly alarming," Brose commented.
Investment resources for future military technology have been repeatedly cut by the US in defense budget drafts. In the proposed $74 billion defense budget for fiscal year 2019, the Pentagon cOnly 0.006% is spent on science and technology.
Even when the US Department of Defense wants to promote technological innovation, it faces many obstacles. Former US Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter established the Defense Innovation Experimentation Unit (DIUx) under the Obama administration. The program once received much support, but has stalled under US President Donald Trump due to lack of budget and administrative support.
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The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier during a test in mid-2017. Photo:USNI. |
Experts say the biggest technological challenge facing the US today is artificial intelligence. In just a few years, AI has surpassed humans in some areas, in addition to better speech and object recognition. This technology is expected to be integrated into combat weapons in the near future.
China appears determined to gain an AI advantage in future conflicts. Chinese companies have won a series of AI object detection competitions over the past two years. While Washington has focused on building aircraft carriers and bombers, Beijing has focused on developing low-cost technological solutions that can neutralize expensive enemy hardware.
China recently announced that it is testing unmanned surface ships and submarines equipped with artificial intelligence that can make combat decisions at sea and even launch suicide attacks on enemy aircraft carriers. Although there are many doubts about the feasibility of this technology, this is an alarming signal that Beijing is sending to Washington.
The vulnerability of the US in information warfare also worries experts at the Aspen Strategy Group. The US has a Cyber Command but has never conducted a large-scale cyber campaign against a worthy opponent.
"With the world's largest population and an economy that is expected to overtake the US as the number one, China is an extremely dangerous rival in the future. Washington needs to modernize its military now to face the big problems ahead," Aspen experts recommended.